Catching this story off CNSNews.com this morning was a little unnerving, to put it mildly. I mean, we all know that the US government has saddled the public with staggering levels of debt that could never be payed off. But do you know what the actual numbers are?
$13,858,529,371,601.09
That's as of December 22nd of this year...nearly 14 trillion dollars.
This, of course, is a new record in debt - a number so high it really doesn't make any sense to think about in our everyday lives. When you break it down to your individual share of the debt, however, it starts to become a little more clear.
You owe $44,886.57.
Ahh, sir? I don't have that kind of money. I live in a camper and drive an old beat-up pickup truck. I struggle to pull in enough to pay for a campsite to park on every month. And you say I owe how much again?
Keep in mind, that's your "equal share". The other 308,745,537 people in this country owe that much too. Even the unemployed ones. Even the ones who are currently losing their homes to foreclosure, can't afford an apartment and will soon be forced to live in a cardboard box.
And wait! That's not even the whole story!
The US Debt Clock, a "real time" breakdown of some pretty important numbers, shows us how much deeper this proverbial rabbit hole really goes.
When you look at the personal debt numbers, composed of such things as mortgages, car loans and credit card debts, the numbers are just as staggering. $16.199 trillion dollars, or $52,088 per citizen. I wonder if "we the people" should pay off our personal debts before we tackle the national...think the Chinese will wait?
And then there's that "US Total Debt" number which stands around $55.487 trillion dollars at 11am today. That breaks down to $178,415 per US citizen, or $680,593 per US family. And the clock shows only a meager $7,976 in savings per US family. Wow.
I wont even start on the "Unfunded Liabilities" number showing over a million dollars "owed" per taxpayer.
This is just another striking example of how badly the system is broken.
Fire up those printing presses Mr. Bernanke! I'll go get the helicopter!
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